View source for The Mystery of the Missing Scout

Hub is Elizabeth Bartley's campaign set in the universe of James Schmitz's Hub stories. Players for the session included:

1. Joshua Kronengold -- Jealousy Jones, psi resistant detective

2. Lisa Padol -- Marius Lecks, empathic doctor

3. Stephen Tihor -- Ell Thorndyke, maiden aunt, psychic screamer, and member of the Ancient and Honorable Order of Retired Scouts

Jealousy, Marius, and Ell were visiting a space station. Ell was approached by a woman who worked for the Space Scouts. She wasn't a Scout herself, being smart enough, but not quick enough. Instead, she worked on reports, logistics, and related tasks. She informed Ell about a missing Scout.

While it made sense to approach a Retired Scout in lieu of the presence of an active Scout, the woman had not reported the Scout missing to the Scout Service. This was unusual. Investigation proved that this and other behavior oddities were not signs of incompetence, but rather of resourcefullness. The woman had been tampered with by a rogue telepath who was part of a ring of rogue psychics. He had instructed her not to tell the Scouts what was going on. Ell, however, was not a Scout. She was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Order of Retired Scouts, which was Quite Different. The Retired Scouts are those who were good enough to survive years in the Scouts. Ell was impressed with the woman's resourcefulness.

At some point, Marius met with this woman, and she cautioned him, cryptically, but comprehensibly, about rogue psychics, I think in terms of having one's opinions change. At this point, the rogue telepath tried to take over Marius' mind. This had been anticipated, and Marius gave Ell the signal to unshield. She did, and the psychic feedback of an unshielded screamer quickly caused Marius to pass out. All part of the plan.

Eventually, it came down to a firefight, and Jealousy looked for mercenaries to hire. She learned that some of Randall's Rangers were available. These were not unprincipled mercenaries; they were mercenaries with whatever principles their employer paid them to have. They were generally prohibited from working in the Federation, but Jealousy got retroactive permission to hire them. Capitalizing on this, the Rangers suggested that perhaps they might be permitted to accept a few very specific contracts that met the Federation's standards of morality.

In the fight, some of the rogue psychics escaped. The rogue telepath grabbed the rogue teleporter, and both vanished. A rogue electrokinetic was captured and handed over to Psychology. The vanished scout was rescued -- he'd been resistant to telepathic brainwashing, IIRC. Maybe he had a chemical mind shield.

Whatever the rogue psychics were up to involved the planet the space station was orbiting. Ell decided that she wanted to see what was special about the planet. Psychology, perpetually overworked, said that, while no one would require this, Ell and the others were certainly welcome to take a look.

I forget what happened on the planet. Stephen says that Jealousy and her nanites infiltrated a base, and Ell did subtle scouting. Various toys, including bombs and grenades were used.

I remember that the telepath and teleporter escaped to a passenger ship which Marius followed in his own ship. He tracked the psychics as they disembarked, locating the hotel they had checked into. The exhausted teleporter was sleeping soundly, but the telepath sensed Marius and sent a mental query. Marius attacked the other's mind.

I completely blew the top off my roll, and Beth ruled that Marius had taken over the telepath's mind and had access too the rogue psychic's power. Marius used this power to send a mental call for help to Psychology. He reached the sole Psychology representative in the area. That person mentally showed Marius what to do until Psychology could arrive in force. When it did, it knocked out Marius, as well as the rogue telepath, on the theory that it was best to take no chances. When Jealousy and Ell arrived, people agreed that letting Ell go unshielded while the friendly psychics wore shields would ensure that the rogue telepath remained helpless.

So, when Marius woke up, he was wearing a mind shield. He tried to take it off, but it was locked around his wrist. Looking around, he saw Jealousy and Ell.

Marius: Why am I wearing a mind shield?

Ell: Because I'm not wearing mine, dear.

Being subjected to an unshielded psychic screamer was extremely painful. Marius lost all desire to remove the mind shield on his wrist.